Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

Leadership Network has a bitesized leadership development thinggy happening next Wednesday, September 9... 09/09/09 at 9:09 AM. It features 9 minute blasts from Dan Kimball, Mark Batterson and even Mark Driscoll (9 minutes of Driscoll has never been heard before, Ill bet he couldn't order fries at a drive-up window in 9 minutes, that guy can preeeeeech looooonnnngggg)

Check out THE NINES online to find out more.

The Environment Crew at E has been building a great moody high contrast black and white environment for the Jonah series every Sunday... You guys are smokin'!

This week we bring the Jonah saga to a close with Jonah Episode 3; a sad tale of the heartLESS mission-missing worshipper, and an exploration of OUR OWN occasional anger and disappointment with God. Ever been angry with God? - C ya Sunday.

Check out The NINES live leadership video conference happening right now at http://thenines.leadnet.org/

Children's Ministry Update: God is supplying E with everything we need to be ready to start a new church! Prayer works, ask and receive! Big news we now have a new non paid staff member - a Children's Ministry Director who will help us build a full children's ministry department for ages nursery through 5th grade. As we plant our new church having a full children's ministry program will allow us to minister to a wider variety of families in Santa Cruz and will allow us to invest in the next generation of Christ Followers. God is bringing people resources to us in ways that are amazing! Come find out who, what and when this Sunday at E!

"Smaller Groups" Update: More of God's gracious movement in E = we now have an amazing, talented, experienced non-paid Life Groups Director too as of this week! Life groups will be starting soon and give you a chance to meet with others in smaller gatherings through the week for prayer, the Word, friendship and missional activity. Come Sunday to find out the who, what, why, where and when. Life Groups will revolutionize community and care at Elevation.

Financial Update: Thanks to everyone who have been faithful in giving to God's work at Elevation! As we get ready to plant a new church and strike out on our own we'll need to begin to pray as individuals, families and as a body to ask God to provide for the greatly increased financial needs we will have as our own church. We see God's clear leading and blessing as we move forward and are trusting Him for the finances to plant. Be praying about how you can financially take part in planting our new church. We now have a special fund set up for the Church Plant. You can now make special gifts to the planting fund by mentioning it on the giving envelop or on your check memo. Since we have ongoing ministry costs for current ministry please only make donations to the designated Church Plant Fund after your normal giving otherwise we will not have operating funds for the current expenses.

Location Update: we've had our team look at about every possible meeting location in the city, we're now working through the list to separate out the no- go's , possibles, impossibles, and seeking God's leading. Join us in praying for God to provide the most powerful location for Elevation. Great things are brewing, God is in action, more news soon as we get a little closer and have a clearer idea of where "the where" might be.

I use the Rhapsody music service at home and at work ALL the time. Its like having almost all the music in the known universe available at all times for about $15 a month. NOW it's available on my iPhone too. Read all about it HERE

Streaming Silversun Pickups at this very moment into my Bose Triports, down my ear canals and into my soul and diggin' it.

By the way using Rhapsody plumbed into your church's PA System is a cheap way to play massive amounts of fresh new music before and after your worship services for about $15 a month. Much cheaper than buying tunes piecemeal. Just sayin...

ImpaKt: Living a Life that Matters

Do you want to live a life of Biblical proportions, a life that matters deeply for God's work, for your family, friends, town and the world? How can God use you to make an impact that leaves a mark on the world around you?

Come explore how to grow your life into an epic adventure. How does God use ordinary folks to do crazy stuff? What are the barriers to making a real difference? What is courage? How do you become a risk taker?

ImpaKt begins this Sunday, September 20th

After looking at about every possible location in Santa Cruz we're narrowing things down to the best possible location for the new church plant. We've looked at schools, nightclubs, leasable spaces and existing churches. We're looking for a location that will serve our immediate needs and give us both room to grow and run our new upcoming children’s ministry in a safe and compelling environment. We also need some parking and a room that will suit our visual multimedia vibe. The location that seems best suited is an existing church facility in Santa Cruz that contacted us and invited us to explore using their facility on Sunday nights (since they only meet in the morning).

This church approached us with an amazing heart, they said "we have a building and don't use it in the evening and we want to help you guys" "why not here?" and "it seems like a no brainer". That's a Kingdom mindset big time - we're humbled and blessed by their generous offer. And Guess what - their facility is superior to the rooms we've been using to boot! Have you noticed what God has been doing in and around the Elevation church plant? Wow!

Since we are still in discussion with their leadership and their Elders have not made a final decision we need to keep the name of the church confidential until they finalize a decision and tell their own church body in advance of ours (if we all choose to go ahead with this). More details coming early in October but we've narrowed the field considerably!

Keep praying that God will lead us to the very best location for His work wherever that might be.

-chuckk

If you are a church planter you probably didn't get into because you always wanted to form a corporation and do legal paperwork... If you are planting a church you need to incorporate and probably want to get tax exempt status. Big fun... We are nearing completion of our process with the papers going in the mail this week. We put together our church corporation (The Elevation Movement Inc.) with the help of an excellent book titled How to Form a Non-Profit Corporation. It's a great resource and can be found HERE. Now on to bigger things like finishing the budget and then trying to raise it!

Actually, bigger things = starting a new series tonight on courageous / risky / impact-rich living and serving with the people I love @ E!

My buddy and our Worship Pastor Omar was in a motorcycle crash today, HE'S OKAY. Omar had a lady in a car jump in front of him as he rode his Harley down the street, he didn't have time to avoid the collision and hit her car. It sent him flying in the air, he flipped (didn't hit his head) and landed on the pavement on his hip - fracturing his ankle. He was airlifted to a hospital in San Jose. En route he shot me this pic from his iPhone.

Omar spent the day in the hospital, he was in a good bit of pain but in one piece, thank God. A very similar accident took the life of a riding partner of ours just a few years ago - Jesus preserved Omar's life today.

Omar should be home by the time you read this - please pray for a quick recovery, pain control and for everything to go well with all things insurance, etc. Satan is on the prowl and after the leadership of Elevation as we plant a new church, keep us and our families in your daily prayer please! There is always spiritual assault on the church leaders and their families when they step into new ministries, please pray for us and those in our families.

Pray also for me and my buddies Eric, Skip, Dave, and Allen (Coleman) we're headed out to the Sierra's tomorrow for 3 days of motorcycling - yet another opportunity for the Evil one to mess with us. We'll be riding Thursday, Friday and Saturday (back home in time for Elevation Sunday PM). Bummer, Omar was planning on riding with us for some time away.

Here's the last pic of Omar from the hospital , he wants you all to know he's doing okay.

Omar will be back at E tonight leading worship and sporting this...

Remember to keep the leaders at Elevation and their families in your prayers, Spiritual Warfare is in effect double-time when you are planting a new church!

Here's the latest! Lots is happening this week. Be praying for God to lead us to His highest and best.

Location: We meet THIS Saturday with the Elder Board of the church who has offered to rent us space to meet in. We hope to have a decision very soon after that meeting. After a decision is made, if it is a go they will tell their body and then well let you know where the Mystery Spot is. If it's a no go we'll start looking at our other backup spaces and let you know about that. Pray for God to place us in the best spot, wherever it is.

Strategic Alignment: We desire Elevation to be part of something greater than ourselves and have been seeking to network with a missional church planting organization. After months of researching and looking for the best fit we've boiled it down to "The Missionary Church USA". We've met with their church planting team and feel a great fit with who we are, what we believe and how we do ministry methodologically. They are very supportive, spiritual, experienced and truly interested in partnering with us. Partnering with an organization gives checks and balances for our leadership, doctrinal stability in the future, support in the planting effort, ordination for our staff, and a greater network to do a greater work. We're hope to make a final decision regarding connecting with them or not this week. Pray on this too!

Life Groups: We're making great headway in starting new Life Groups so that every Elevation-ist can find community, a place for study of scripture, prayer and a conduit to serving outside our 4 walls. Jenn Smith, Czarina of these new small groups is doing training for leaders Saturday Oct 11th and new groups will be rolling out over the next 3 weeks - contact Jenn --- jenn@elevationSC.org to find out how to find a group or ask about hosting one of your own.

Children's Ministry: Terri Clarke is hard at work getting curriculum and supplies together for our new full Children's ministry! We'll be recruiting helpers for both the nursery and older kids gathering. The new kid's church ministry is gonna be exciting, interactive, fun, scripture centered, and uber-cool. If you have a little one and attend Elevation we'll need you to serve in Kid's church once a month or so to provide ministry for our kidlets. This will be awesome as we invest in the future little elevation-ists! If you would like to be involved in kid's church contact Terri Clarke --- terri@elevationSC.org. We currently need workers in the nursery right away. The new awesome full kid's ministry officially launches Sunday, December 6th!

Budget: We're working hard to finalize a budget for the new church plant and should have one complete in the next 2 weeks. We'll be prayerfully seeking funding for the new church through increased giving from our body @E, plus special 1 time gifts from people to the Elevation Planting Fund and hopefully support from a church or two that may be willing to contribute to a new start up. Our current Elevation giving only partially supports our current budgetary needs (we receive about 40% of the total current budget from Elevation offerings, SCBC provides the remaining 60% until December 31st) After January 1st we're off and flying on our own finances. Pray along with us that God will supply the budget needs for us to launch well. We're seeing Jesus' hand of blessing on every area of ministry at Elevation, He has a plan and we're seeking his provision for funding for the ministry too. It is SUPER exciting to live by faith! Nothing is to big for our God.

Coda: God is at work, we're making excellent headway at starting a new missional church here in Santa Cruz. Be stoked, get on board, let's plant some churches! -Chuckk